On March 13, The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) confirmed that the Olympic Flame for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games would be lit in Ancient Olympia at 12 o’clock at noon on March 24 and would be handed over to the Beijing Organizing Committee at 3 p.m. on March 30 at the Panathenian Stadium in Athens. The relay will cover 137,000 km in 130 days before the flame finally arrives at the National Stadium in Beijing on Aug 8, 2008 for the opening ceremony. Certainly, one highlight is the Torch Relay to Everest, which symbolizes Beijing Olympic Games bring the spirit of Olympic to a new height will arise the world’s attention.

However, referring to the date to Everest, it is still undetermined should be accordance with the weather at that time, the HOC official spokeswoman Liping said.She thought, the Torch to Mount Qomolangma (Mt.Everest) mainly face two big challenges: one is the high requirement to the mountaineering skills and the physical fitness of the torchbearers; the other, the torch should be light and keep flaming under the condition of paramos, hypopiesia, Oxygen-poor and flurry . Li revealed that BOCOG has set up a disciplined, experienced Torch Relay team, who are concentrating on training and testing, strengthen physical fitness and improve their skills. In addition, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) has made innovation and many times test for the torch to keep flaming under that bitter weather.

Liping stated that the relaying to Mount Qomolangma would be on May,but the detailed date was not determined. It would be a quite better weather to carry on the great project "Torch Relay to Mount Qomolangma"